MICHAEL Essien suffered World Cup heartbreak last night when he was ruled out of the finals in South Africa despite a four-month battle to be fit.

Michael Essien suffered World Cup heartbreak when he was ruled out of the finals in South Africa []

Ghana’s Essien became the second Chelsea player in the last week to miss out after Germany’s Michael Ballack was felled by an ankle problem.

Essien had hoped to recover from the knee ligament injury he picked up at the African Nations Cup in January, but the Ghana FA last night came to the decision that he was not ready.

Essien had stayed in England to continue his recovery with Chelsea’s medical staff and was due to fly out this weekend to join up with the Ghana squad.

But after a meeting there with doctors yesterday, the Ghana FA said in a statement: “Michael has been ruled out of the World Cup.

“An evaluation by a combined team of medical experts revealed that he will not make a full recovery in time.” Fernando Torres handed Spain a lift on the eve of their departure for a training camp in Austria by working with the rest of the squad for the first time since knee surgery.

He went under the knife on April 18 to repair torn cartilage in his right knee and appears on target to return inside the six-week rehabilitation period forecast by his doctors.

He joined up with the rest of Vicente del Bosque’s 23-man squad in a light training session yesterday that featured a half-hour practice match.

Brazil arrived for the World Cup in Johannesburg yesterday saying they will be less friendly to fans and the media than they were four years ago.

The players and coaches hope to avoid the euphoria they blame for their elimination in the quarter-finals at Germany 2006.

Coach Dunga said: “From the first day we said the priority is the national team. Everything else comes later.”